Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are many problems in the country and it is a pity more business is not being taken. That calls into the question the Government's true agenda and whether it is able to run the country in the way it has been elected to do.

I refer to the mortgage to rent scheme, a pillar of Labour Party policy. Labour Party Senators were among the first to recommend such an approach, although I recommended it in a report for the Joint Committee on Social Protection three years ago. The reality is, as Mr. Justice Dunne said in the High Court recently, the scheme gives false hope to those in mortgage difficulty. Is not working out; it is a sham. The record showed last summer that only one transaction had been completed. Last week when Bank of Ireland officials appeared before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, they informed us 13 transactions had been completed or were being looked at, yet Labour Party representatives all over the country are issuing statements about the scheme offering great hope. Leaflets about the scheme are being dropped through letter boxes. People are attending my clinics saying the scheme will save them, but, unfortunately, it will not.

The Government parties are playing with the emotions of those in mortgage difficulty by making such loud noises about the scheme when a High Court judge has had cause to say it is not working out. It is worrying that the scheme is the only response from the Government to protect those in mortgage difficulty. Everything else in place was introduced by the previous Government. I invite Government Members to outline what is in place for those in mortgage difficulty that was not in place under the previous Government. They will only find the mortgage to rent scheme. At least one person in five is in mortgage difficulty and time after time, the Government has taken the side of the banks, as we witnessed yesterday in the debate on the Personal Insolvency Bill 2012. With the usual wave of the hand, the Minister for Justice and Equality said that, unfortunately, normal commercial contract law applied to those in mortgage difficulty and that they had to pay their way. However, normal commercial contract law does not apply to many other groups and, in particular, the banks and the Government parties have given them a veto. They abolished mortgage interest relief, thus forcing people to negotiate with their banks without giving them any help. The Banks have also been allowed to run amok with interest rates. The mortgage to rent scheme is a public relations exercise for the Labour Party.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, come to the House to discuss the failure of the mortgage to rent scheme and outline to the people, including those with mortgage difficulties, what hope there is for them, and apologise to them for having given false hope and putting in place a scheme that simply has not worked out, as a High Court judge said this week.